[German]Microsoft plans to migrate business customers from classic Outlook to the new Outlook app from beginning of 2025. This has been announced in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (MessageID MC926895). However, administrators can prevent this via a policy.
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New Outlook app versus Outlook classic
For many years now, classic Outlook has been used by many Office users as a mail client, for managing appointments and more in a productive approach and it is hard to imagine life without it.
Although classic Outlook is to be supported until 2029 (see Road map for new Outlook app; classic Outlook supported up to 2029), and the new Outlook app has a lot of problems, Microsoft has been trying to bring its new Outlook app, which is being developed, to the public since 2023.
I have reported several times on these approaches and the problems here in the blog. In the article Trouble with the new Outlook app: forced update and sluggish behavior?, I outline the pitfalls of the new Outlook app, which are actually a no-go.
MS on Migration from classic Outlook to the Outlook app
Microsoft has recently published an entry with the MessageID MC926895 in the Microsoft 365 Admincenter, which deals with changes in the migration from classic Outlook to the Outlook app. I don't have access to the Microsoft 365 Admincenter myself, but Martin Geuß has outlines the content of MessageID MC926895 on German site Dr. Windows.
Microsoft describes these planned changes under the title "We're making some changes to the migration from classic Outlook to the new Outlook for Windows". The aim is to get people onto the new Outlook app.
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Microsoft will therefore be migrating users of classic Outlook to the new Outlook for Windows as part of a Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Premium license from January 6, 2025. This will take place gradually for users over the following months from January 2025 – when who will be switched over.
However, the affected users are only switched to the new Outlook once during this action, but can switch back to the classic Outlook manually. However, Microsoft reserves the option, according to my reading of the text published by Martin Geuß, that this switch to the new Outlook can be carried out again in the future.
Blocking the switch to the Outlook app
Martin Geuß describes on Dr. Windows the possibility for administrators to block this automatic switch via group policy. This is the "Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook" policy. The policy is set in the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\preferences
the 32-bit DWORD value NewOutlookMigrationUserSetting. If the value is set to 0, the migration to the new Outlook app does not take place. With the value 1, the migration can be triggered by Microsoft or carried out manually by the user.
My assessment is that administrators in corporate environments should set this migration block in the registry. This is because the new Outlook app is unfinished, cuts off the support for add-ins and VBA available in classic Outlook and is also a disaster in terms of the level of implemented functions, data security (everything goes via the Microsoft Cloud) and support for accounts from third-party mail providers. The details can be found in the articles linked below if required.
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